Running From the Past
by WildHeartsR5
Summary: Laura and Vanessa Marano were sent to a mental hospital after being convicted of a crime they didn't commit. When they escape they change theirs names and run from all of those trying to find them. Ross Lynch, he was sent to foster care along with his siblings after his parents became depressed and abusive. Ross can't take it any more and runs from the system. Their paths cross...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 _ **Running From the Past**_

The alarm echos through my ears, I can see Vanessa's hair swishing as she runs. What is happening you may ask? Well, that is an interesting story. It all started nine months ago.

 _Nine Months Ago:_

Me and Vanessa had met up with our friends.

"Can we go to the park?" Ashley pleads.

"Ash, its almost dark." Zach tells her.

"Please Please Please." She whines pulling on his arm.

"Ugh, fine just shut up please" I say. I then grab my coat and walk out the door.

"Seriously Laura, your going to the park at eight o'clock at night with Ashley? She is gonna end up getting you killed by a panda." David says.

"Really pandas? What, are they gonna beat us to death with spoons?" I say laughing at the extremely weird mental image.

I walk out into the warm summer air. School ended just a few weeks ago and Vanessa, Ashley, Zach, David, and I have spent every day of it together. Each day is always weird, Ashley being the weird and spontaneous one loves to make us do the strangest things. Luckily Zach being her boyfriend usually can talk her out of the dangerous things. I can hear the others mumbling behind me and Ashley as we walk to the park.

The small run down play ground soon comes into view. I watch as Vanessa takes off sprinting towards the swing set. She may be older than me but she doesn't act like it. There isn't anyone around. All of the usual kids, seem to have gone home already. I watch as David attempts to run up the slide. Half way up he slips and falls into the mulch, I let out a small laugh. Some times I wonder how I became friends with such messed up people. Yet, they are the best part of my life. I sit down at my regular swing and watch all of my friends.

Vanessa is now trying to accomplish the monkey bars, and failing pretty badly. David is now siting on a bench texting his girlfriend, and Zach is chasing Ashley. They are adorable together, but sometimes it is just sickening.

"Hey guys come here!" I hear David shout from over near the pond. He must have gotten up while I was watching Ashley. I slowly get off the swing and walk up to Vanessa. She shoots me a look, and I know she means this is going to be weird. As we get closer to the pond I am able to make out four dark figures approaching my friends.

They all seem to be holding something. As I realize what it is, it's too late to tell the others. They figures raise the objects and three loud shots are heard. I race to my friends to find them laying there lifeless. Ashley takes in a shallow breathe.

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault." She whispers as a tear rolls down her cheek. Then her eyes flutter close. I look up to find Vanessa on the phone. From what I can hear she is calling the cops. The tears that are streaming down my face match those of my sister's. The figures walk towards me.

"Here." They say while thrusting their gun in my hand. I look down to find gloves covering their hands.

"Why?" I ask.

The leader gets a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"It's the initiation ritual for my fellow companions here." He says while pointing at the three men behind him.

"Initiation for what?"

"Well, the gang called the koalas duh." He states while snapping at one of the men behind him. The man then hands Vanessa the other gun. I can faintly hear sirens in the background. They seem to hear them too and take off running. Vanessa appears next to me.

"Why did you talk to them? More importantly why did they talk to you?" She asks through the cascading tears.

"I'm not sure."

The police soon arrive at the scene. They look at the guns that we are still clutching and pull out two pairs of handcuffs. Thats when I know why they talked to me. They had to distract us so we would take the blame for their crime. That's why they had the gloves, they didn't want their fingerprints on the guns. We are still alive because we were part of their plan to escape.

"Why did you shoot these poor innocent people?" The officer asks as he shoves us in the back of the squad car.

"We didn't the koalas did. They had gloves so their fingerprints weren't on the gun. We were framed." I tell him. He lets out a small laugh.

"Koalas huh."

"Yeah there were four of them." Vanessa says.

"Girls, koalas don't live around here, they live in Australia."

Soon we are in a police station being questioned, I keep telling them what happened but each one thinks i'm insane. After weeks of being locked in a jail cell the judge finally has their verdict.

Me and Vanessa are supposedly mentally unstable. We are taken to Virginia State Mental Hospital. The workers treat us like little kids. No one understands that we don't belong here. I tell them, but they never listen. Eventually me and Vanessa devised a plan. We had the perfect plan of escape.

 _Present:_

And that's how we ended up running from security guards in a mental hospital. We sprint for a good few miles before Vanessa slows. We slip into a nearby set of woods. She looks at me and I know what she is about to say won't be good.

"Laura, honey, we have to split up, it won't be as easy for them to find both of us if were not together. You need to go by a different name too. I will come find you when I have cleared our names. What ever you do, don't trust anyone but me. From now on you will go by the name Ally Dawson. If you need me my new name will be Bay Kennish." By the end of her speech there are tears streaming down my face.

I give my sister one last hug and we go our separate ways. I quickly find a bus station and chose the one that is going farthest from here. As I sit I fix my hair so it covers my face. I also grab a lady's purse and apply enough makeup to mask my face. I just hope it's enough so I can make it out of state without being noticed. At the next stop I will change my look completely. For now I just have to wait and hope no one notices me.

 **So... how was it? The second chapter will be about Ross and his family. Please review. I have had this idea for a while. It's a little complicated but I like it. Please please please review.**

 **Hugs and Kisses**

 **Vega**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Okay so for the story I had to change their ages some.**

 **Riker- 13**

 **Rydel- 12**

 **Rocky- 9**

 **Ross- 6**

 **Ryland- 4**

 _ **Running From the Past**_

 _ **Chapter 2**_

I take one quick glance back before slinging my duffel bag over my shoulder and climbing out of the window. I sprint down the street avoiding the glow given off by the street lights. I enter the train station, purchase a ticket, board my train, and sit back ready to start a new life. I just hope it is better than before. What is so wrong with my life up till now you might ask? Well it started 11 years ago when I was only 6.

* * *

 _11Years Ago:_

"Ross, wake up." I hear Rocky saying as he shakes me.

"What?" I ask still half asleep.

"I think something is wrong with mommy. Daddy took her to the hospital and left Riker in charge." He says, I can see the panic in his eyes.

I quickly get out of bed to find Rydel and Riker in the kitchen talking. Rydel seems to be crying a little.

"Riker what's going on, and Delly why are you crying?" I ask my two older siblings.

I can hear footsteps behind me. Soon Rocky and Ryland are standing on both sides of me. I look at all the faces around me, each one with an expression of sadness or fear.

"Guys, mommy is at the hospital because something is wrong with the baby." Riker tells us. Rydel breaks down sobbing once again.

"Now I won't have a baby sister, it's not fair!" She shouts.

"Ssh, it's okay." Riker says as Ryland walks up to her and hugs her.

This can't be happening, I was so excited to be a big brother again. It's not fair, the baby was gone so soon, she didn't get a chance to live. Out of all of us Ryland and Rydel are taking it the worst. Ryland, my baby brother will never get a chance to be a big brother.

"Guys, I think we need some sleep, mommy and daddy won't be back for a while." Rocky says. Riker silently nods in approval of his statement. Everyone but Rydel slowly starts towards their rooms.

"I can't, I was supposed to share my room with her, I can't go back in there." Rydel whispers.

"Delly, you can sleep in my room." I offer. She gives me a forced smile before heading to my room.

"We should all stay together she is going to need support." Rocky says from behind me.

We all head up to my room, I find my sister curled up in my bed trying to hold back tears. I sit next to her and hug her from the side. Some how all five of us end up sleeping in one bed. Me and Ryland laying on top of Riker and Rocky. It is really uncomfortable but no one says a word. We all seem to drift off into sleep filled with nightmares. Around two in the morning a scream wakes me from my sleep.

I can see Rydel twitching in her sleep, I shake her slightly to wake her up. She sits up suddenly starling the others out of their sleep. Eventually we all fall back into a restless sleep.

When I wake up in the morning I head down stairs to find my dad asleep with his head on the table. There is a multitude of beer bottles surrounding him. I know he should go upstairs to sleep so I try to gently wake him.

"You! Why did you wake me!" He screams.

"I thought you should go upstairs to sleep." I whisper at the floor.

"Look at me when you speak, I don't appreciate this behavior." He shouts. I shrink back at his words.

"I'm sorry daddy."

"No, you will call me Sir from now on." He states.

"yes, sir." I manage to mumble out.

"Go get the others and then clean the whole house." I stare at him in shock, he isn't my dad anymore. He is some strange mean man that happens to look like him.

"NOW!" He shouts as he slaps me across the face.

I can hear footsteps approaching and they are getting louder. Soon Riker is by my side.

"Don't hit Ross ever again!" He shouts.

"Why, what are you going to do about it?" He says while slapping me again.

Riker goes to lunge at him, but is stopped when he is punched in the stomach. Riker lets out a strange sound on impact. I go to move in front of him but I am stopped by Rydel. She pushes me back and takes me to my room. Rocky and Ryland are both in here. She just gives us a look before leaving.

I decide to get up and see who mom is doing. When I enter her room all of the curtains are closed, there is little to no light. I can see her form huddled on the bed. I gently sit next to her.

"Mommy are you okay?" I ask. She doesn't respond. I look into her face and I see her blank expression. She is just so catatonic, she ins't the bright fun loving mom I remember. It's like she is a hollow shell of the mother I used to know.

* * *

It stays like this for months. My dad being abusive, Rydel seems to get the worst punishment. He says she doesn't deserve to live a good life since her sister didn't get to live at all. Mom doesn't come out of her room, except for food. When she does it's usually at night. They don't take care of us any more, Riker and Rydel have to do it most of the time. No one around us has seemed to notice our situation.

Today I had just been beaten for trying to go to the park. According to my father, I wasn't supposed to leave the house except to go to school. I rush to my room in tears. The visions of the broken beer bottle he used to beat me still fresh in my mind. I can here to door open and I look up to see Ryland. He may be only four but he still understands. Sure i'm only six but we all just kind of know.

"What happened?" He asks.

"Daddy, he took one of the empty beer bottles, he broke it on the side of the table and started cuting and hitting me with it." I sob out. I see the fear in his eyes. He quickly leaves the room. He soon returns with Rydel and Riker.

Rydel quickly cleans all the cuts and puts bandages over them. She has become our nurse, she is always there to help us when he hurts us. I look to Riker, I can see the anger in his eyes.

"This has to stop, we can't live like this anymore." he shouts.

"What else are we supposed to do?" Rydel asks.

"We have one more option." He says as he pulls out his phone and dials a number.

Twenty minutes later i'm being put in the back of a car with my siblings, heading for a foster home.

* * *

Now i'm with my fifth foster family. They are just as bad as my real parents, but this time I don't have siblings to help me through it. My step brother constantly beats me and my parents treat me like their personal slave. I shouldn't even consider them my family, they don't treat me like family at all.

I just can't take this any more. I just can't live like this. Eleven years of abusive guardians, I just want a normal teenage life. Is that to much to ask for?

I make my decision, grab my duffel bag and pack my stuff. Next thing I know i'm climbing out the window and getting on a train.

Thirteen hours later i'm standing in a train station in the middle of California. I just need to keep a low profile so that no one finds me. If the foster care system finds me I will be back in the same endless cycle. I guess I can always go by a different identity till i'm able to find Riker. He is legal now, maybe I can find all of my siblings and we can be a real family.

Time to start my new life as... ugh... hmmm... how about Austin Moon. All I need now is a bottle of hair dye. I need to make my hair blonde just like Riker and Rydel. Time to say goodbye to my natural brown hair color and hello to blonde.

It's all part of being Austin Moon.


End file.
